Two Edmonds festival artists’ styles couldn’t be more different

Published 3:12 pm Thursday, June 18, 2009

You might call Marjorie Bruce and Douglas Bosley the yin and yang of the Edmonds Arts Festival.

Bruce is 85. Bosley, 25. Bruce uses watercolors to paint delicate and brilliant flowers. Bosley is a printmaker who produces dark, sometimes disturbing, pieces embedded with messages.

Bruce has been among the selected artists in the Edmonds Art Festival for so long she can’t remember when she started. Bosley is happy that his work has made the cut for a second time.

Though opposites in many ways, these two artists symbolize what has made the Edmonds Arts Festival such a huge draw for 52 years: the contrasting variety of artwork.

It’s also the kind of egalitarian affair that promotes newcomers, as well as veterans, to the art scene.

“Everyone is given equal weight. It’s super Democratic that way and they are very careful not to make it look like one person steals the bacon,” said Bosley, who has been an Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation scholarship award winner for several years.

“It’s just great for the younger artists to put their work out for us to see,” Bruce said. “But us older ones, we aren’t giving up.”

Far from it.

As far as Darlene McLellan is concerned, artists like Bruce just keep getting better.

“She has done nothing but improve her technique and style,” said McLellan, who is on the Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation board.

Bruce, the festival’s poster artist in 1984, deviated a bit this year from her detailed watercolor florals and produced a self-portrait of the artist making her first quilt.

“I’m trying different things,” Bruce said. “Whatever strikes me.”

After graduating from high school in Wisconsin, Bruce was hired to work for Boeing as a layout artist during World War II, Bruce said. She worked for eight years then raised a family before getting back to her artwork. She has always preferred watercolors.

“My mother painted in oils and I didn’t care for the smells, and there wasn’t the challenge that watercolor has,” Bruce said. “I love the colors and that’s primarily why I have more flowers than anything.”

Bosley is quite opposite in that regard.

His print at this year’s festival, “Until We have Evidence it is Just Another Story,” is darkly detailed and somewhat futuristic with two people wearing containment suits looking at a computer screen that has unrecognizable text.

“It signifies the ambiguity that comes with communicating with people,” Bosley said.

Bosley will graduate this year from Western Washington University with a bachelor of fine arts degree and plans to go to the University of Wisconsin for a master’s with a credential to teach someday.

Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424, goffredo@heraldnet.com.

The Edmonds Arts Festival

The festival combines a weekend of art with creative projects for kids along with entertainment that ranges from acoustic guitar to marimba to Celtic tunes and ballet.

There are also food booths galore and a wine bar and bistro.

This annual, free, three-day Father’s Day event kicks off at 11 a.m. today and runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 20 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 21 at the Frances Anderson Center, 700 Main St., Edmonds.

There’s free shuttle parking at the Edmonds Home School Resource Center, 23200 100th Ave. W., Edmonds.

Every year since 1983, there’s been a poster artist for the festival; this year’s is Charlette Haugen.

For more information go to www.edmondsartsfestival.com.